Jimmie Fidler, July 7, 1941

"Bergen's audience was a Negro veteran who lay at the point of death -- so near the edge, in fact, that hospital officials warned Edgar the man might die at any moment and asked if he would rather not go in. But Bergen went in; he spent 30 minutes in that room and for 30 minutes the dying man watched Charlie McCarthy's painted face with a happy smile. He died shortly after they left, still with the smile on his lips. Doctors said it was the Negro veteran's first smile in months."